Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
New Apache licenses under consideration
The Apache Software Foundation is developing a new set of licenses intended to cover software produced by Apache projects. There are three new licenses: the Apache License 2.0 would apply to most software, but the Apache RI License and the Apache TCK license deal with the extra constraints that come with Java-based projects. There are some concerns in some quarters that the licenses are not 100% free, due to some of the patent language and the Java restrictions. To your editor, however, they appear to be free licenses, given the fact that some Java software simply cannot be free. Interested people are encouraged to read the licenses and make comments - after having perused the mailing list archives.Open Source Software Institute Releases Components to eGovernment Web Services Platform
The Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) has announced the release and availability of Project Leopard (Phase 1), the core component of its eGovernment web services platform based on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python).GNOME News
Footnotes reports that the GNOME Foundation Membership & Elections Committee has announced the final list of candidates running for the 2003 elections.
Footnotes has also reports that
Chema Celorio died while skydiving in Mexico. "For those of you not
in Ximian who don't know, Chema started and ran our Mexico City office, led
the Ximian Setup Tools team a few years ago, was in charge of the team that
managed our contract with HP, led the Ximian Desktop for a while, was one
of the creators of GNOME Love, and was recently our lead sales engineer for
Europe.
"
DotGNU 0.1 Released on CD
Version 0.1 of DotGNU, the open-source alternative to .NET, is available on CD. "DotGNU, the GNU project's Free Software alternative to .NET, has come a long way in the last 2.5 years, and it is now possible to use DotGNU to implement application programs and web services in C#, running them in the DGEE webservice server, and integrating them with the phpGroupWare web-based GroupWare suite."
Commercial announcements
Aspen Systems Announces A Distribution Partnership With MandrakeSoft
Aspen Systems, Inc. has announced a distribution partnership with MandrakeSoft. Aspen Systems will enlarge its technology portfolio and will have the right to market, support and sell the MandrakeClustering Linux operating system in the United States.Sharp's "home server" to run MontaVista Linux
MontaVista has sent out a press release announcing that its "Professional Edition" will be running inside Sharp's HG-01S ("Galileo") home server. This server looks like a fun gadget, it handles video recording (onto an internal 120GB disk), functions as a web server, and can be controlled in several ways. One just hopes that a lot of attention is being paid to security issues.Novell acquires SUSE
It appears the rumors were correct: Novell has announced its intent to acquire SUSE Linux. As a result, "Novell will be the only $1 billion software company with a Linux distribution and the worldwide technical staff to support it". Novell is putting up $210 million in cash as part of the deal. Some of that is coming right back: IBM is going to invest $50 million in Novell, and the two companies will be working other deals to continue SUSE's support of Linux on IBM's systems. The deal should close by the end of January.
SGI Altix 3000 Proves Favorite With Linux Journal Readers
SGI has announced its SGI Altix 3000 family of servers and superclusters has been named "Favorite Server" in Linux Journal's annual Readers' Choice Awards.The return of Trustix Secure Linux
For Trustix Secure Linux users: the announcement has gone out that the acquisition of Trustix by the Comodo Group is complete, and Trustix Secure Linux will be returning to the market. The work that was done, for a short time, under the name "Tawie Server Linux" will be merged back into Trustix. "Confused? In plain text things are slowly going back to how they where before Trustix AS went bankrupt. It also means that we now have more resources than before, which will enable the TSL team to focus more on TSL development than we have been able to before".
Freedom Technology Center Events
A new Linux training facility is open. "The Freedom Technology Center, a new IT training facility in Mountain View, California, will open on Saturday, November 22nd with a free one-day class on email security, entitled "Protecting email users from viruses, spam, and other threats.""
Ransom Love joins Progeny board
Ransom Love has joined the board of Progeny. Mr Love is, of course, a co-founder of Caldera and served as its CEO for years - though he got out before Caldera turned into the SCO Group and went on the attack.Novell Lowers Linux Management Costs with Red Carpet Enterprise 2
Novell has announced the availability of Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise 2, the latest version of Ximian's management software for workstations and servers. Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise is part of Novell Resource Management and it extends the Linux capabilities of Novell ZENworks.UK Support available for Red Hat Enterprise
LinuxIT is now providing support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux V3 in the UK.Linux Bangalore/2003 Receives Sponsorship
The Linux Bangalore/2003 conference has secured the Platinum, Gold, and Silver levels of sponsorship from HP, Novell, and Exocore Consulting.MySQL gets more customers, sales projected to double
MySQL AB has sent out a press release proclaiming a new set of customers and the fact that it has doubled sales again over the last year.
New Books
Two Python manuals published
The first two volumes of the official Python documentation The Python Tutorial and Python Language Reference Manual are now available as printed books.
Resources
EDRI-gram newsletter
The November 5 EDRI-gram newsletter is out. This issue looks at the debate over the proposed European intellectual property rights enforcement directive (which appears to be facing a difficult road), "Big Brother" awards presented in several European countries, efforts to avoid the deployment of unsafe electronic voting systems, and several other topics.IBM releases Q4 Linux middle software CD Set
IBM has released its Q4 Linux middle software CD set. The set is available for free (registration required).LDP Weekly News
The November 12, 2003 edition of the Linux Documentation Project Weekly News is out with the latest documentation changes and additions. Take a look at the HOWTO generator and a discussion about HOWTOs lacking depth, among other things.OpenOffice.org Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue #5 of the OpenOffice.Org Newsletter has been published. Take a look for the latest OpenOffice.org reviews, MS Office 2003 critiques, and more.Open Source Maturity Model released
Gemini Ernst & Young have released a model for measuring the maturity of open-source software. "This model allows you to determine if or which open source product is suitable using just seven clear steps. Not only a good way to keep interesting but immature products away from your business, but also a useful tool to objectify the discussion on applying Open Source in the workplace." Feedback is requested.
Upcoming Events
The Grid Wars Parallel Programming Challenge
Submissions are open until November 15, 2003 for the Grid Wars parallel programming challenge.Open Source at Comdex Winners and Results (O'Reilly)
O'Reilly has announced the results of a contest for populating the COMDEX Open Source Pavilion. Winning projects include: Plone, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Zope, the Gimp, and GNOME.KDE at the Comdex Open Source Pavilion
KDE.News reports on the KDE presence at the upcoming COMDEX conference. "KDE will be represented at the large US computer show COMDEX, in Las Vegas, from the 17th to 20th November, as a result of placing second in a poll run by O'Reilly Network. Developer George Staikos will be demonstrating the soon-to-be-released KDE 3.2, featuring a vast number of improvements in all areas, as well Kolab, the Free Software groupware solution."
Desktop Linux Consortium offers discounts to LUGs
the Desktop Linux Consortium has announced the availability of a discounted entry fee for LUG members. "Responding to many requests, The Desktop Linux Consortium has announced that Integrated Computer Solutions (ICS) of Cambridge, MA has offered to support members of Linux User Groups (LUGs) in attending the Desktop Linux Consortium Conference at Boston University's Corporate Education Center by offering a limited number of spots for LUG members for US $25."
GUADEC 2004 Slated for Norway
Here's a press release for the fifth annual GNOME User and Developer European Conference (GUADEC). GUADEC 5 (or GVADEC) will be held in Kristiansand, Norway, June 28-30, 2004.WineConf 2004 announced
WineConf 2004 will be held from January 31 to February 1, 2004 in St. Paul, Minnesota.LUGOD November Installfest
The Linux Users' Group of Davis, California will be holding another Linux Installfest workshop on Sunday, November 16, 2003.Events: November 13 - January 8, 2003
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| November 14 - 16, 2003 | Third International Ruby Conference | (Red Lion Hotel)Austin, Texas |
| November 15 - 21, 2003 | Supercomputing Conference(SC2003) | (Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center)Phoenix, AZ |
| November 16 - 19, 2003 | ApacheCon 2003 | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| November 16 - 20, 2003 | COMDEX 2003 | (Las Vegas Convention Center)Las Vegas, Nevada |
| November 20 - 21, 2003 | ObjectWeb Conferenc3 | (INRIA Rocquencourt)Rocquencourt, France |
| November 22, 2003 | Southern California Linux Expo(SCALE) | (Los Angeles Convention Center)Los Angeles, CA |
| November 22 - 24, 2003 | New York GNOME Summit | (Brooklyn College)New York, NY |
| November 24 - 26, 2003 | Open Standards and Libre Software in Government Conference (CANCELLED)(EGOVOS 3) | Paris, France |
| November 26 - 27, 2003 | Forum PHP Paris 2003 | (Club Confair)Paris, France |
| December 2 - 4, 2003 | Linux Bangalore/2003 | Bangalore, India |
| December 9 - 13, 2003 | International Conference on Logic Programming(ICLP'03) | Mumbai (Bombay), India |
Software announcements
This week's software announcements
Here are the software announcements, courtesy of Freshmeat.net. They are available in two formats:
- Sorted alphabetically,
- Sorted by license.
Miscellaneous
MSfreePC.com Donating Money to Mozilla (MozillaZine)
MozillaZine reports on a new way of funding open-source software development. "Those California residents who qualify for the $1.1 billion MS antitrust settlement can choose to have money donated to open source projects, including Mozilla, at a website set up by Lindows." Microsoft antagoniser Lindows.com set up MSfreePC.com as an alternative to the standard claims procedure agreed by Microsoft and Towsend and Towsend and Crew, lawyers for the plantiffs. Whenever a qualifying consumer uses the site to claim his or her share of the legal settlement, MSfreePC.com will contribute 10% of the value of the claim to Mozilla or one of four other open-source projects, including Debian, KDE, GNOME and OpenOffice.org."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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